Spirit Sunrise
by Tempest Breeze
Summary: Getting stuck on Mobius. You'd think that this would be any fan's dream come true, right? Dead wrong. Eggman's out to kill and the local heros have disappeared off the face of the planet. All I've got for help is a couple kids, a rabbit, an egg, and abilities that do more harm than good. This world is so messed up. Rewrite coming: accepting ideas and OCs for plot!
1. The Mystery

_Me and my friends were playing video games, when all of a sudden this weird vortex appeared, like a black hole, and sucked us all in. When we woke up, I said,"Guys, I think we're in the game!"_

_Review, and I'll post another chapter!_

I leaned back in my chair and glared at the abomination junking up my computer screen. Did the author even put any effort into this piece of crap?

Universal Fanfic Rules: #1: Thou shalt not make a piece of crap to be beholden to in public. #2: Thou shalt not call a paragraph a chapter, as it will be flamed to death. #3: Thou shalt not have a black hole pop up from nowhere and suck you in, as it is completely and utterly impossible. #4: Thou shalt actually put effort into thy story and updates, unless thou wants a burned hiney. #5: See 1-4. #6: ...you get the idea.

I proceeded to flame the person in a review, telling him how much improvement he needed. I then guided the mouse to the back button at the top of the screen, as I wasn't going to waste my life on anymore of this crap. It's not that I'm against any writer who would want to put themselves into their story. I just wish they'd put more effort into them.

"Dawn! Dinner time!"

Wow. How many times has my mom interrupted one of my thought ramblings? Oh, well. At least I can get my mind off that crap that just burned itself into my eyeballs.

"Sure thing, Mom! Coming!"

I closed the window, clambered out of my chair, went down the stairs, and into the kitchen. My mom had finished setting the table. Tonight's special was...pasta! Yum!

Don't stare at me like that. So I like the Italian culture, sue me.

Spose' you guys are wondering about my family, eh? My dad is a successful computer programmer, so my family resides in a pretty mediocre house, considering that he spends most of his earnings on stuff he can attack with a screwdriver. The things he _doesn't _maul clutter everything, but it's otherwise okay. I got an awesome computer, personal TV, and other such gadgets for me to entertain myself with. Or else I get dragged out the door to go and do (gah!) flute lessons and softball practice.

Look, I may be an athletic woman at heart, but believe me, it's _not _fun getting smacked in the face with a ball that could otherwise give you a major nosebleed.

Mom's a mystery, even after all these years. She's devoted herself to 'making the world a better place' or whatever else she does. Homework NEVER gets past that lady though. Otherwise, she's pretty much a normal mom... weirding up my life.

My sis, Sara...she's something else altogether. When she isn't trying to annoy me to death or beating down on the poor Wii...let's just say she's weird. Health-wise. If you come up with a new protein shake, you'll know who to call to try it out. Sara is a health-freak.

And then there's me, Dawn. I'm a fifteen-year-old trying to survive middle school long enough to get to high. It is HECTIC there. The heating doesn't work right, the plumbing's busted; one time it flooded the girl's bathroom in the winter and turned it into an ice rink. I can either be found studying, hanging out with friends, exercising my heart out (yes, I'm one of them), or messing around with my (yet again) awesome computer, or just plain reading. Or gaming on my Wii.

Now, with that out of the way, shall we move on?

"Anything exciting happen today, D'?" my mom inquired.

"Well.." I stopped eating for a moment." I went to the bathroom earlier today at school, but the sinks stopped working..."

"Oh, dear!" my mother put a hand over her mouth in horror.

"...and one of the toilets exploded."

"Gross!"

I shrugged."Just a common occurrence these days."

"How many times has that happened now?"

"Three times. Keeps happening. When will the school ever know that the pipe system's busted? Made a nice ice rink, though."

"Yuck!" my sis made a face."You're disgusting, you know that?"

"Says the person who's the biggest health nut the world's ever seen," I retorted, poking at her with my fork.

"Says the person who's obsessed with gaming."

We continued eating in silence, until Mom broke it with another question.

"Any homework tonight?"

"Only an English assignment that's not due 'til next Friday. No biggie."

I finished eating at this point, so I tossed my plate in the sink and headed back upstairs.

"I want you to look over that assignment tonight, okay hon'?" my mother's voice called up.

"Sure," I muttered.

Once I was back upstairs, I automatically switched on my TV, only to find the nightly news starting. Normally, I wouldn't give a hoot about the weather or what local robbery had happened that night. However, THIS report sparked my interest.

"I'm here at Sixty-Fourth Street," the on-site reporter began, motioning to the darkened house behind her, "where another child has mysteriously disappeared last night, making him the thirteenth in as many days.

"Police are baffled by this haunting series of disappearances. All the vanishings happen in exactly the same way: their parents claim that their child goes to bed the night before, but in the morning, they are simply gone; no signs of break-in or struggle. In fact, the beds of the children are even made, as if the children were not sleeping in them to begin with.

"As I've previously stated, this is the thirteenth time this has happened. These disappearances have occurred all over the country, from California to Maine, and even in Hawaii on one occasion. So far, ten of the children were not even in their teens when they vanished, and the remaining three were fourteen, fifteen, and seventeen, respectively. Furthermore, one so far has been female; all the rest have been boys. Police around the country have asked that anyone with any information on any of the kidnappings please contact them at 555-TIPS. All calls will be confidential. This is Mary Anderson, Channel 4 News."

An icy chill crept up my spine. I quickly switched the TV off after that. This was majorly creepy. Kids disappearing overnight without any trace? This thing was breaking the heck out of my 'Give a Crap' meter. Way too disturbing.

Doing that English assignment suddenly felt like a welcome alternative to keep my mind off this creep-fest.

I picked up my pack, dumped it's contents out on the floor ( I'm not the cleanest person, so shut up!), and sifted through the mass of trash and folders until I found my English binder. I then shifted through the unorganized papers, crumpled up essays, until I finally pulled out my current assignment.

Oh, joy. It was a creative writing assignment. One of those things where they allow you to write stuff down about little green men running around with bazookas, blowing up balloons of Barney the Dinosaur that shoot lasers. Then the teacher gives you an 'F' because you didn't do it their way.

I'm just not one for writing. I try, and I fail.

I finally looked down at the prompt:

_If you could live in any fictional world, what would it be and why? Please make your answer at least five paragraphs long and explain your reasoning thoroughly._

At least the subject's interesting. Sometimes living here is weirder than any fictional world could be.

Meh, screw it. I just looked over it once like Mom told me. I snickered. I love loopholes.

I set down the sheet on my bed and plopped down in my personal chair at my computer. I still had an hour or two before bed, so what the heck? Why not continue my search for a fanfiction that won't scar my eyes and mind for all eternity.

Half-an-hour later, I disgustedly left the website. Let's just say the latest horror I'd somehow found involved Shadow, the author, and a love life. Closest thing I ever got to that was making puppy eyes at Link.

Shut up, love thoughts. More important things to do. Like finding a fanfic that won't make me spontaneously combust with stupidness.

Of course, it was not so, so I exited to the homepage, which was the news. I realized irony knew no bounds: the leading headline was about the same, creepy kidnapping spree going around. Oddly enough, I found myself clicking at the headline, even though I already knew (and dreaded) what it was going to say. However, there was a difference between this and the news program's report: this one had a list of the names of the missing children. I don't know why, but I began looking over the entire list, memorizing the names of the kids. I guess... I guess I really felt for them or something.

What the heck is wrong with me? I _never_ got this emotional over any news story before, so why is this one bugging me so dang much?

I glanced over at my clock: 10:30 PM. Wonderful. I needed to get to bed or I'd really regret it in the morning. I got up, took three steps, and threw myself onto my array of pillows and blankets. Thankfully, all that was left to do was sleep. I switched off all lights and dove back under the covers. Unfortunately, that chilling news story was still on my mind; I needed to think about something else, or I'd wind up with a nasty case of insomnia.

My mind eventually drifted back to that essay question. _What fictional world would I want to live in? _Hmm... Well, RPG worlds are usually pretty cool, but they always tend to be doomed to a quick, flashy destruction. What about Hyrule? Naw, not high-tech enough (although, that Clawshot is a pretty darn cool piece of equipment). Mushroom Kingdom? Now, that's making some progress, but...

Ah ha! Of course! Mobius! Sonic's home world! That place is awesome! Of course, that begs the question of _which_ Mobius I'd be talking about... Would it be the goofy, off-the-wall, all-logic-out-the-window Mobius in that Sonic cartoon or the dead serious, post-apocalyptic, Freedom Fighter's Mobius of the comics? And we can't forget that crazy anime movie... And what about the games that started them all? Maybe it would be a combination of all of them? Well, I guess it really wouldn't matter, as long as Sonic's there! Heh, maybe I'd be able to meet him!

Oh gosh.

I'm starting to sound like one of those authors.

That's when I realized the problem: Forget trying to figure out where I'd want to live, how could I possibly write this essay without it turning into a dreaded 'self-insert' story? Granted, I don't think my teacher would care at all (she probably wouldn't even notice, unless she actually looks at fanfiction, which I seriously doubt) but how am I supposed to write about something if I know it's gonna turn into what I commonly criticize!?

No, sorry, I just can't do it. Mobius, you'd be an awesome place to live, but I'm not putting you in my essay. I just can't take the risk.

This was what I fell asleep thinking about.

* * *

**Hello, Winged Dawn here! Please excuse any bad grammer or misspelled words! This is my first fic, so all constructive criticism is welcome! No flaming, please. I will update soon, count on it! Please review!  
**

**-Winged Dawn**

**P.S.- A note on Dawn's views. I personally don't criticize every bad story that comes my way, but seriously, folks! Some people could really put some more effort into their updates!**


	2. A New Life

**(A/N): For this whole story, I only own the characters I come up with, such as Dawn; the rest are all owned by SEGA. I also don't own Naruto. I'm not repeating this disclaimer, so enjoy the story! Yet again, only constructive criticism in reviews, or ideas for me to improve the story. Please no flaming. R&R, please! I will only post the next chapter if someone else reviews besides that criticizer and the encourager. Encourager, I love you! Vixen-Rouge53, thank you for the fav. People, yet again, I want at least another three reviews before updating again! No more anonymous reviews, please! I want to thank you properly!  
**

**Winged Dawn, out!**

* * *

I woke to the sounds of birds chirping and a soft breeze blowing across my face.

Wait a sec. Last I checked, it was the dead of winter. All the birds are down south, and I'd be downright insane to leave the window open to let a breeze in. It's been below freezing for the past week!

I tried to open my eyes, only to abruptly slam them shut again to keep out the sudden burst of sunlight. How on earth did the light get in my room? My bed is_ away_ from the wall with the window on it, positioned so the sun wouldn't wake me up in the mornings. I couldn't wake up to it unless some idiot put a sunlamp in front of my face, which I completely doubted. I proceeded to raise my hand in front of my face, blocking out the light so I could see what the heck was going on.

So I opened my eyes. And when I did, they got as big as trash can lids: my outstretched arm was covered in silvery fur. I then looked down at the rest of my body. It was also carpeted with the same color of fur.

I shrieked and jumped into the air. I suddenly felt light-headed and toppled over. I grabbed at the nearest object to steady myself: a tree.

Wait... a tree? Yep. By now I'd gathered back enough of my composure to notice my surroundings. I was in a small wooded hallow that was open to the sky, letting sunlight filter through. Apparently, the tree I was leaning against was the one I'd been using as a pillow for the night.

A thought suddenly struck me: didn't those kids on the news vanish in their sleep? I only remembered going to bed before waking up here.

My heart was thumping wildly in my chest. Was it my imagination, or was I shorter than usual? I released my hold on the tree next to me and flung my gaze around the clearing. Where was some water when you needed it? I needed to see what the heck happened to me _now._

There! I spotted a large body of the liquid only a little ways away at the edge of the clearing. I rushed over to the water's edge, only starting to dread what I might see reflected back at me. I almost had a heart attack when I looked into the pool of water at my feet.

It wasn't me staring back; it was an animal. Quite literally.

I was covered from head to toe in sleek, silvery fur, excluding the patches of white on the lower half of my face and chest. Pointed ears twitched back at me. Deadly looking claws sprang from my fingertips and feet, while a... flippin' _tail _sprouted from the back of me, quite fluffy and tipped with white, like a fox's tail. Except it wasn't a fox's.

One of the biggest shocks of all was my face. I now had a muzzle slightly protruding from the lower part of my face, with white whiskers springing from the sides and dotted by a small black nose. My mouth was filled to the brim with razor sharp canines, therefore ripping veggies from my menu. I also noticed I was right about being a midget; I couldn't have been more than three feet tall! I was a _cat. A walking, talking, CAT!_

At this point, I think I snapped. I don't mean totally insane, but it could come close.

One normally doesn't remember what they do when they snap, but I can vaguely remember pinching myself, banging my head on the tree next to me, and biting on my newly discovered tail. Doing that all just to wake up from this freaky nightmare. It ultimately concluded with me cannon balling into the lake, hoping the water would wake me up.

Of course, it only got me soaked, dripping, and above all, smelling like a wet dog that took a bath in sulfur. Perfect.

I dragged my drenched body out of the lake, and shook all the stinking moisture out of it almost instinctively.

I sat myself on a rock and pondered the possibilities. I've confirmed this isn't a dream at all and I'm officially going crazy, so what to do? Find some civilization, for starters.

Then, I realized the majority of the problem at hand. I was a mutant cat, and if I showed up where any normal person was, they would presumably call the police about a rabid beast lurking around. And assuming I didn't get shot after that, they would probably take me to (heavens forbid!) Area 51 and lock me up in some mad scientist laboratory, and run who knows how many tests. If I was to evade that particular fate, I needed to lose the tail, the claws, the face, EVERYTHING, and spontaneously grow two feet taller. But how on earth was I gonna achieve that? I didn't even know how I turned into this thing to begin with!

Ow. My head was starting to hurt. I finally decided to take action; no more twiddling thumbs for THIS beast. I glanced around the clearing, looking for some kind of cliché trodden path to follow out of this place. The closest thing I found was a passage leading through the trees, with broken branches and trampled grass at the sides. I simply shrugged and took the path. I was at a total lack of better options, so I went with the latter.

* * *

After that particular incident, I couldn't have spent more than three hours navigating that not-so trodden trail. My new fur was insisting on getting tangled in everything it could grab a hold of (such as twigs, tree sap, snails, etc). My tail also got into a bundle of trouble. The thing seemed to have a mind of its own as it wrapped itself around tree trunks, only loosing when I grabbed it and tugged it off.

My trek wasn't that eventful either, so I busied myself with whistling tunes from everything I could think of, such as _True Light, Firework, Firefly, To the Sky, _and even random game songs that had stuck to the inside of my head years before.

When your such an obsessed gamer as I am, that happens.

This also gave me some time to ponder my situation. This was all definitely real, although getting stuck in a random forest didn't help matters at all.

Soon enough, I ran out of tunes to keep myself from going insane, if I wasn't already. I just kept on trudging through the dense forest undergrowth.

Then I finally cleared the forest completely, and stopped dead in my tracks.

A small valley spread out below me, and a single plume of smoke rose beyond the sparse trees.

My heart gave a lurch of joy as I stared at the smoke. I may not be a Boy-Scout (of course I'm not a boy), but even the densest of morons knows one thing. Smoke means a fire. Which could be a camp-fire, which could lead to civilization!

I tossed all my caution out the window and started descending down the slope as fast as possible. Of course, considering all my dumb bad luck today...I tripped. I was sent hurtling down the hill, somersaulting the rest of the way down. Ouch. I rubbed the tender spot where a random rock hit and continued my pursuit of the fire, and hopefully, and solution to this whole mess. Once I'd traveled a few more yards, my nose began picking up the scent of something delicious cooking.

Wait a sec, how could I smell something like that from way over here? I wasn't even _that _close to the fire yet...

And then my other predicament hit me head-on. Cats, like dogs, have a fairly good sense of smell, just not as good as bloodhounds'. Naw, forget all that biology crap I'm sure would bore even a rock out of it's mind. Back to reality.

Anyway, as I made my way closer to the fire's source, I prepared myself to bolt in case some random maniac with a gun jumped out of nowhere and tried to shoot me. Thankfully, no one did. Soon, I found myself on a more worn path where the grass was replaced with dirt. It widened farther ahead into a kind of ragged street, with fourteen thatched wooden huts straddling the sides. A huge bonfire- the source of the smoke- was smack dab in the middle of a kind of circle, with a big iron pot suspended above. Instead of what I might have expected, which was a couple of normal people camping out here, there was- brace yourself. The villagers were animals- _just like me._

This caused my confidence to skyrocket. I wasn't the only freaky half-breed around here! I took a running start towards the middle of the village of huts, only to widen my eyes for a second before ramming into someone. I was kindly repaid by falling backwards onto my overly fluffy tail. I blinked, then took a look at my new acquaintance from my embarrassing position on the ground.

I'd say he was about three inches taller than me, much to my annoyance. His head was kind of an ovalish shape, his snout protruded a bit farther than mine, and had a bigger nose. His fur was mostly a light brown color, nearly white, with darker patches on places like around his eyes and stripes going down his tail, which was fluffier than mine, to say the least. But much more muscular. His body was fairly lean around the chest and waist area, with more dark brown strips running around them. As far as accessories went, a sleeveless, open jacket decorated the upper half of his body, while casual hiking boots adorned his feet, and fingerless gloves on his hands with a satchel hanging at the waist. I supposed he might be a kind of raccoon, although I couldn't be sure.

"Whoa, there! Slow down!" he said, some irritation showing in his voice. A bit of a British accent, if you looked for it, although this guy was anything but those happy-go-lucky gentlemen on TV who sip tea and eat English biscuits while skipping around the room being 'posh'.

"Sorry about that," I mumbled, rubbing my sore tail I'd landed on."I wasn't watching where I was going, I guess..."

His response was an outstretched hand, which I took. He hoisted me to my feet.

"Eh, don't worry about it," he replied with a grin."Happens all the time, although you wouldn't believe it."

The raccoon blinked, then took a closer look at me. " My name's Joshua, but I prefer Josh. What's your name?"

" Um... I'm Dawn," I answered somewhat distractedly. That name...I'd heard it somewhere before...

"Where did you come from?" Josh asked. "Are you a traveler? We don't get many around here, with us being in the middle of nowhere," he finished with a laugh.

Awkward silence. What the heck was I supposed to say? "_Oh, I just woke up this morning as a cat, with no clue where I was, and made my way out of the forest to here..." _Yeah, if I said that, I was going to be in an animal asylum in no time. Come look at the loco cat in the padded hut!

Josh must have notice the perplexed look on my face. Great. The crazy parade would begin any moment now. He was gonna be skeptical no matter what I said.

Instead, he asked me ,"Hold on...Did you happen to wake up this morning in a forest north of here as what you are and not know why?"

I stared at Josh with my jaw hanging so widely open a bird could have fit in there. "H-how...w-what?" I sputtered." How did you...?"

Josh let out a laugh at my confusion. Apparently he thought it was amusing.

"We're all in the same boat," Josh greeted, holding out his hand." Everyone here has the same story: we went to bed as humans, woke up animals. Welcome to the club."

Then it hit me like a bulldozer: Joshua Sanders. The name was on the online list of the kids who went missing! How had I not remembered?

Soon, the locals began crowding around us, being friendlier than ever. Several threw greetings at me.

I noticed that their species varied greatly from one another, ranging from a huge bear cub to a smallish mouse about two-and-a-half feet tall. Despite their appearance, I was confident that they were all no older than nine or ten.

Josh finally decided that I probably needed a bit of privacy, so he whisked me away from the crowd of critters and introduced me to my new living space: one of the various huts surrounding the huge bonfire.

I noticed a tinge of pink on the raccoon's muzzle."What?" I demanded."Is there something on my face?" As if there wasn't a ton of grime on it already.

"Um...uh..." he stuttered, " you...you're...not wearing any clothes..." Josh finished with a squeak.

I stared at him for a minute, then I glanced down at the lower half of me and squealed like a little girl, my cheeks flushing bright red. I was completely nude.

Josh backed away a few feet, then broke into a run in the other direction to evade my punch homing in on his face, coupled with a cry of,"Pervert!"

"Look, I thought you knew!" Josh cried out.

"Well, you thought wrong!" I yelled back.

When he was finally out of sight, I slammed the door to my hut and sank down the back, my face burning with embarrassment. How had I not noticed sooner? I could have at least grabbed a couple of huge leaves to cover up my private parts. But no. Stupid animal instincts won out.

I don't care if every male in this compound doesn't mind running around naked. I was not-I repeat NOT-going to go around like some kind of immodest diva in the middle of summer.

I finally lifted my head up to gaze around my living quarters. Shoved against one wall was a straw-stuffed mattress on a wooden frame, complete with sheets and a pillow to make a somewhat comfy bed. A wooden washing basin lay at the foot of the bed, thankfully. I could finally wash my face. One final piece of furniture finished decorating the room: A chestnut brown chest (HAH! Pun intended) sat directly underneath the window at the far end of the room.

The chest caught all my attention. I slid my right hand under the lid, the other joining it to heave up the heavy wooden slat. The lid flew open, the brass hinges creaking under the propulsion and change in weight. I glanced down at the floor of the chest.

There sat a couple bundles of clothes and other objects. I dipped my hand under the light-weight fabric of the first piece of clothing and brought it up to eye level to inspect it. This was a small white jacket that cut off near the middle of my waist. It was nearly completely white with a collar and barely had any shoulder cover; it was basically sleeveless. Black strips sprang from the right side of the jacket, with three golden buckles parallel from them on the other side. It was obviously meant to buckle to close. The tank top that was underneath the jacket was a bright aquamarine, the shoulder straps dyed midnight black. It, I imagined, was meant to be worn underneath the white jacket.

I put these two articles of clothing aside and turned my attention to the next item. I lifted out next a pair of slightly baggy tan shorts that went down part of the way on the upper half of my legs. A black belt wound around the waist, held firm by a silver oval buckle. Small pockets hung at both sides of the the shorts, with a hole stitched in the back of the pants, I noted with interest. Perhaps for a tail like mine to fit through? A large leather pouch was tied to the side of the belt, while a largish black knife without a hilt (a kunai?) hung limply opposite of it. I put the shorts aside as well.

The next things in the bottom of the chest made my heart almost leap out of my chest with joy. They were a pair of socks, sandals, and _shoes!_ When you've been trekking everywhere in bare feet, even shoes that have been tossed out into the garbage seem like salvation. The socks, were of course, plain white. The shoes, however, were very nice hiking ones. The majority of the outside skin was white, while the entire sole of the shoes were a light gray. A small, but long cyan dash decorated the insides of the shoes. There were no laces; instead, there was a pair of straps going along the top beneath the bottom of each huge tongue of the shoes. The sandals were the kind they wear in Naruto. However reluctant, I also set these aside.

I drew out the last objects. It was a pair of fingerless gloves with steel plates bolted on the sides, like Kakashi's from Naruto ( another reference, I know), small loop earrings, and a wad of hair bands. There was also a bottle of two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. I could finally wash my fur! I lifted all of them out and placed them next to my new clothes. Before I automatically shut the chest's lid, I noticed a small headband tucked in the corner. I lifted this out as well and unfurled the dark cloth. My heart skipped a beat.

It was a genuine Leaf Village headband, or in other words, a hite-ate ( yet another reference, shut up). The steel plate bolted to the surface of the cloth shone in the light emanating from the window, shading the spiraling symbol, the emblem of the Leaf .

After this discovery, I let the chest lid slam shut behind me as I washed myself in my washing bin with the shamditioner ( that's what I'm gonna call it from now on). I then dressed in my new clothes, pinched the loop earrings on and the fingerless gloves, and tugged the Naruto sandals on my feet. I don't want my feet to get cooked outside, now do I? I found a backpack hanging from a rack on the wall, so I stuffed my extra socks and shoes into it. I used the mirror dangling from the back of my door to do my hair, putting it up into a ponytail with one of the hairbands, letting my large side bangs hang over my new Leaf hite-ate. Oh, I look freaking _awesome! _You do have to wonder why that headband was in there, though...

I swung open the door to the outside camp. I had my suspicions about the clothing I'd found, but I put them away for later. It's not like I had any objections to it; I was a longtime Naruto fan. I dumped all these thoughts into a mind-box labeled 'Suspicions', and pulled out the one labeled 'What to Do'.

I sorted through them and decided to look around. Josh was nowhere in sight, and I didn't blame the guy. If someone had tried to punch me to the moon, I'd be reluctant to go anywhere near them afterwards.

I finally took in the whole camp. Before I'd had a bunch of nonsense swirling around in my mind; this time I was ready to tackle my new life.

As I walked around, a few of the younger ones gave me strange looks, but I waved them off. For the first time, I noticed metal plaques on each of the doors to the huts. They each had their respective animal resident's name etched into the metal.

This raised even more questions, so many, in fact, that my 'Suspicions' mind-box was starting to overflow. I sorted my thoughts again, chucking the worthless, stupid ones into the trash and looking at the ones that seemed important. Okay, let me get this straight. First off, how in the blazes did the mysterious force (I'd taken to calling it that) know all these names, prepare beforehand a place to stay, and know exactly what we liked? It was driving me crazy not even having one little answer!

Stupid mind. I _said_ I was going to do something else. I gently slapped my forehead, only to bounce off the forehead protector on it. Okay. Think.

Then an idea came to mind. I was going to meet the other critters my age, okay? And I was _not _going to think about anything else.

I realized some people were staring at me, probably thinking, _Why the heck is that girl just standing there?_ I quickly picked up the pace, relieving myself of the burning gazes. I turned to one of the huts and read it's plaque. It read, _Sam Pierce. _On the list of names on the news site, it said that he was 14. About my age.

I pushed open the door, taking care to look around before edging into the small room. Illuminated only by the window at the far end of the room, I could see a small shape sitting on the bed. Then it walked out into the light, and I now made out a small gray sugar glider, his fur now shining in the light flooding in from the open door. It was almost three feet in height, but the huge fluffy tail behind it made it look even smaller. Small white shoes adorned it's feet. A large blue bandana hung around it's neck. It was most likely a he, because the report from the news said only males had disappeared so far. Until me.

"Who's there?" a squeaky voice asked, coming from the sugar glider.

"Um..." I said, not sure how to reply," I'm the newbie that just came today. The name's Dawn. And you?"

"I'm Sam," came the squeaky voice again."Come in."

I glanced at the small red berries in his palm, and my mouth started watering as I came forward. I hadn't eaten all day, and those seemed so juicy, I couldn't resist.

Sam noticed my expression of hunger towards the berries, and he whipped his hand away while throwing a disapproving look at me. " You don't want to eat these berries. They can be slightly toxic to people, causing diarrhea and vomiting, as holly berries are."

I scowled at him. " Then why wave your hand in front of my face when I haven't eaten anything at all today?" I whined.

To my surprise, Josh suddenly appeared out of thin air as he approached me from the shadows. " Because he was trying to judge whether they were safe to eat or not. He's taken to be our resident Boyscout here, making sure we don't kill ourselves scrounging for food. Before he came along, you would have been picking at the dirt for anything edible."

Sam puffed up his chest at the praise, then almost immediately deflated as he put his attention back to the slightly poisonous berries in his palm. He then chucked them in the nearest trash can.

"We're going to see if the stew boiling in the fire is done yet. I also got that set up," Sam said, pride obvious in his voice.

We were outside now, and I could see the raging bonfire ahead. That little animal set _that _thing up? At least I could get my hunger satiated now.

I then recalled that there was one other kid in his teens. "Isn't there another guy in charge here?" I asked. "Wasn't there another?"

Sam nodded his head. " She's the kid who just got here the day after Josh, Rin. Right now, I think she's just off being by herself. Rin's not the most sociable person."

I asked another question that just came to mind. " How did you guys find this place, anyway?"

A faraway look came into his eyes. " Oh, yeah. Josh was the first one here. He told me about it once. He popped up in the forest, then spent hours wandering around until he found this village, completely empty. Then the following days, more people came, and so on."

I nodded in silence, and then we finally reached the edge of the heat. Josh was overseeing lifting the pot out of the fire with a long wooden rod, and a loud clang resounded as the heavy metal met the ground.

One of my fellow critters handed out small wooden bowls as Josh filled them each with the broiling stew. I ate my fill and soon moved out of the way as more people crowded around, each eager to get his dinner. I slowly edged away from the searing flames of the fire. There was something I wanted to try out, and I couldn't concentrate in camp.

I wandered over to the crest of the hill overseeing the small valley with the village embedded in the middle. I flopped down on the thick grass beneath me, and gazed up into the heavens.

You could see the abundance of stars in the sky. They created thick swirls as they thickened into the Milky Way. I pointed out some of my favorite constellations, such as Aries, Virgo, and Leo. At least we were in the same galaxy.

I then remembered my real reason for coming out here. I got up and shot towards the forest. I needed a tree for my experiment, so I selected one standing far apart from the rest. Here it was.

I started concentrating fiercely, sweat starting to bead down my face and bulging muscles. You know how they have this chakra system in Naruto they can manipulate? I was going to try that out, my previous suspicions fueling my energy.

Okay. Combining mental energy with physical... I had plenty of both, considering that I exercised so much I had a considerable amount of muscle, and I also had an A in my total school grade.

To my utter astonishment and joy, a blue glow started emanating from the soles of my feet. Confident that I had the technique down, I pushed off the ground and dashed toward my selected tree. I put one foot on and tried to climb up... only to fall back down onto my head.

I jumped back up immediately, furious with myself for not practicing first. I took my large knife I'd stuck in my pocket to mark the place where my foot had pushed off with a long slash across the bark. I continued this combo until the moon was high in the sky, when I'd finally reached the top of the tree, dangling from my feet from the bottom of the high branch with a silly grin plastered on my face.  
At least now I knew the connection of the Leaf headband. I had within myself the potential to be a shinobi! Or, a noisy one at least. I really needed to work on treading silently and striking without a sound. And tomorrow I was going to see if I could I pull off a jutsu. Looking back now, reading through all the Naruto manga volumes and watching the show really paid off. I knew every single jutsu and hand seal by heart.

I hopped down from my awkward position on the tree and happily ran towards my hut in the village. By this time, the fire had stopped being fed and was reduced to the size of a regular fire, and no one was in sight, presumably in bed by now. Right now it was probably 9:30, ten at the latest. I thought I'd just stay up for, say, a half-hour more before hitting the sack.

I laid down on my bed after taking off my clothes, setting them by the foot of the bed as I slipped under the covers. Now was the time to think.

Okay, I learned how to climb trees using chakra. But that usually required a great amount of chakra control, which I think I just gained. Granted, I don't want something awful to happen to anyone here, so I need to learn to do jutsu. But most of them are just destructive, and I don't want to blow anything up. So where to train...

A small ding resounded from inside my head. Of course! You know how Naruto can slip inside his mind? I could train in my mind-scape without killing anything, and I could practice using mind-created kunai and shuriken! The time was most likely different too, so I could train longer than a half-hour tonight.

I spent the next five minutes figuring out how to enter my mind, then did so. I soon found I was able to manipulate the landscape, changing it to scene of training grounds with targets scattered around and put a clock up, just hovering in the air. It showed the time outside, and the time passing inside my mind. To my joy, time was moving so slowly in here, according to the clock, a minute here was several days.

I spent the rest of the half-hour training myself with shuriken and kunai, throwing in a little taijutsu as well, since I was a black belt in martial arts. I went to sleep feeling very tired mentally and feeling very proud of myself.


	3. Robot Brawl!

**(A/N): This is not a crossover story. I'm just adding little Naruto details to spice the story up a bit. I don't care how random they might be. My story.**

**As for the plot, in this chapter we will be hitting one of the main story points to get it underway. Anyway, beware of cliffhangers! I plan on doing quite a few.**

**I'M ALSO GETTING QUITE PISSED I DON'T EVEN HAVE A SECOND REVIEW YET. What is wrong with you people?! Review or else ~!**

**And with that out of the way, try to enjoy what I have so graciously dumped upon your heads, despite the threats.**

**REVIEW OR FACE THE WRATH OF MY FLAMING SWORD!**

**Winged Dawn, out!**

**PS: If you can guess what kind of animal Dawn unknowingly has in a review, you get a digital cookie and praise from me. Also, one other question: How many other people hate Barney besides me? Dawn gets it from me. Another thing; I'm not giving Dawn chakra to make her god-like. She's going to be as sucky as possible until she gets the hang of it.  
**

**Dawn: Barney will die a horrible death.**

**Me: You go, girl!**

* * *

The next morning, I woke with sweat beading down my face. Stupid...dream...about exploding dinosaur heads... Yeah, really random, I know. Sue the people who invented Jurassic Park, bombs, and a highly scary and annoying Barney the Dinosaur. Yes, said thing's head blew up in my dream face.

I immediately remembered all of the events from yesterday. I moaned as I noticed I was still stuck as a stupid cat. Could my predicament get any worse?

But enough of that. I found my gaze being drawn back to the chest on my right, after shoving my tail out of my face, as it somehow curled up in front of it during the night. If, for any reason, there was something else in there that might help me sort out this mystery, I was going to take it.

I yanked the blanket off of the front of me and clambered out of bed, taking care to dress before going over to the chest. I slowly opened the lid, creaking as it went. Someone needed to oil these hinges really bad.

I stared at the floor of the chest. My heart lifted as I saw two black holsters at the left. Peering over the edges were the hilts of kunai and the razor edges of shuriken. Without argument, I lifted out the sheaths and slipped the belt-like straps through the belt loops at at the bottom of each pant leg, fastening each securely. I glanced to the right next.

To my astonishment, there was a large egg laying in the right corner. It was speckled with blue dots near the top, then faded into a yellowish color as it went downward. I couldn't recall seeing an egg like this before. A small note was taped to the top of the huge shell. I snatched it off the top and began reading. Scrawled in handwritten letters, it went:

_Thought you would need those weapons to physically train, as you might be surprised you can't 'mind-jump' anymore. That was blocked off for reasons I don't care to share. There is now a digital watch in your pack if you want the time. As for the egg- excuse me while I laugh- you might be surprised to see what emerges. I trust that you already know how to properly care for this kind of creature. Good luck. You're going to need it._

The note cut off after that, leaving no signature or anything whatsoever. I turned it over, searching for a further message, but it was blank.

"You have got to be kidding me," I sighed.

My mind was- once again -furiously trying to process this. More questions arose, none that I had answers to, except for the fact that whatever deity had thrown me into this mess was giving me weapons and some kind of pet lizard or bird to take care of. Great. Some creature soon was bound to be doing 'mama' eyes at me one way or another. _Now I have yet ANOTHER thing to worry about, _I thought sarcastically.

I took the deity's word for it that I couldn't access the mind place anymore.

I dug my gloved hand into the pocket of my pack, feeling around for anything that could remotely serve as a watch. My fingers brushed against a surface that felt like a mixture of rubber and plastic. I grabbed at the object, then pulled it out. It was a dark navy blue hiking watch, seemingly waterproofed as well. Blinking on a glow-in-the-dark screen were the numbers: 5:46.

I slipped on the gadget, thinking that as long as I was up early, I might as well get some training in before trying the egg in the chest. After lifting out said object, I placed it on the bed and exited the hut.

Not surprisingly, no one was in the clearing outside. They were probably still asleep. All the better for me to not get disturbed. Wouldn't want a random person barging in and then having an awkward silence again, now would we?

I tiptoed quickly, but quietly, and made my way around to the back of my living quarters. Confident that I was out of earshot of anyone sleeping nearby, I dashed up the hill at the back of the camp. After having another reunion with the same dang rock as last time (hate it!), I looked out over the small valley for the second time in the last day.

"Nice view!" I whistled. The rising sun in the dawn was particularly beautiful this morning. The dark of night was retreating to the west as the pinks and light reds of dawn took their places in the sky, with the bright light of the sun peering over the trees.

I sat down Indian style and began listing off various exercises in my head that I could do. Let's see, pushups, situps, crunches, stretches, jogging for a good amount of time...

Ten minutes later, I came up with a fairly good training regiment by my standards. It was:

Stretch in every possible way

Preform pushups, situps, and crunches for ten minutes each

Jog for a half-hour straight

Rest for at least five minutes, then go into the tree-climbing exercise

Jog down to the lake in the forest, using a chakra boost

Try out the water-walking exercise

Kunai and shuriken target practice

Try out channeling my chakra, then try to do jutsu, such as Shadow Clone, or basic clone

Come back to camp and have a nap.

Yup, the list was coming along nicely.

I went and did as my instructions bid, training the morning away. I was surprised at how fast I was progressing and picking up these techniques. Although I couldn't perform a jutsu immediately, after a few tries, I managed to get a weak clone of myself out, slumped on the ground like a deflated balloon. I glowered down at the clone, then slapped it lightly, making it disperse in a poof of smoke. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna suck at doing anything else but that. My chakra control sucks.

The water-walking bit I actually mastered. Looking back at the target practice sessions...I think I got pretty awesome at doing it, blowing off whole branches with a reinforced kunai, and hitting a tree dead-on in the middle with the shuriken.

I glanced down at my watch after making the run back to camp. 9:31. Well, that's actually less time than I would have thought it would take. Awesome.

I decided against the nap thing, as I tossed and turned in my bed without getting a wink in.

With all that out of the way, and my body surprisingly not that sore, I trotted out into the clearing in front of my hut.

Predictably, walking among the huts were several other campers.

"Hey," said a voice behind me, nearly scaring the crap out of me.

I whirled around to face the raccoon who'd become familiar over the last day. Josh grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry I scared you," he said, "But I'd like to talk to you about something. By the way, where did you get that headband?"

I self-consciously grabbed at said item. "Found it in the chest in my room along with my other stuff. Cool, right?" I asked with a grin.

"Sure," Josh said dryly, dismissing the topic almost casually, causing me to frown."Want to come and help us try to find a way out of this place? It's either that or watching the kids."

"I'll go," I announced without hesitation. "Not that I don't like the cute little guys, honest, but the last time I tried to, well, my pants ended strung up the summer camp flag pole..."

I waited a minute to see his reaction. There was none. I then added the rest of the story.

"...with me in them."

Yup, I'm going to assume your face was the same as his was: Priceless.

Josh doubled over in laughter, tears starting to streak down his face as it shook his entire being. He leaned over so far he collapsed onto the ground, finally starting to dry his tears as he sat up.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," I muttered, "don't blame me when you get mauled by the little devils and the same happens to you."

Josh finally stood up and called Sam and another camper, which I assumed was Rin, over to us for a meeting. Rin was a leopard just barely smaller than me by an inch, and was wearing an outfit that consisted of a black leather jacket, white tank top, sleek jeans, and some boots to finish it off.

"So you're saying I was right?" Rin asked. "No one's shown up yet?"

"Well, yeah," Josh answered. "Fourteen huts for fourteen kids."

"See?" Sam added. "Didn't I say this was working out way too perfectly?"

"Sure," I said, waving him off, not that I remembered him saying something like that in the first place.

"So, what's the plan, then?"

"Simple," Josh replied, "you're good with the kids, right?"

"Yep! The kids love me! Comes from all the community service I did to earn that Eagle Scout Award."

"Good! You stay here and supervise while me, Rin, and Dawn go out and search for _other_ signs of life, understand?"

"Wait a second... Why do I have to stay behind?" Sam complained.

"Because," Rin explained, "Josh's the leader, I know the layout of these woods the best because I'm usually the one sent out to find food, and Dawn..." she turned to me, "... You're not good with kids, right?"

"Yup," I grumbled,"they tend to eat me alive." How many people would see that right off the bat? Me plus kids equals war zone!

"But... But... Sigh... Fine, I'll stay here..." Sam grumbled, "You guys can go have all the fun..."

The flying squirrel moped off, leaving the three of us to prepare for the journey ahead. I almost felt sorry for the guy... almost.

"Well, have we got everything?" Josh asked, "We're not turning back until we find answers."

"I think so," Rin answered, "I filled your satchel with some snacks for the road, I've got a pocketknife so we can mark our path..."

"Hold on... You have a pocketknife!?" I interjected.

Rin reached down and pulled a very concealed switchblade out of her boot. It had a small ring-shaped attachment on the underside of the handle, which allowed her to spin it around her finger, kinda like you see cowboys do with their guns in all those old westerns.

"To be honest with you," Rin admitted, "I didn't even notice this thing until I was putting my shoes on this morning! Besides, don't you have that huge one dangling from your belt? Anyway, I have something for you, too."

"What? Another knife?"

She walked off and came back a few seconds later with something much less exciting: a canteen full of water.

"Here. You're the water carrier, okay?"

"Uh... Gee... Thanks..." I mumbled. I was tempted to argue and pout, but here's some advice: never do anything like that in front of someone with a knife.

During all of this time, Josh had walked back into his hut. When he came out, he was holding a rather tall walking stick that you usually see hikers use. I guess that made sense, since we _were_ going on a bit of a hike. However, if you ask me, the thing looked more like it was made to whack someone over the head with rather than assist with climbing over rough terrain.

"Are we ready to set out?" Josh questioned, pointing out of the village.

"I think so," Rin replied, putting the knife back in her shoe, "what about you, Dawn?"

"Yep, I'm ready. Let's go."

I swung the canteen strap over my shoulder and the three of us began marching out. It was time to get some answers.

* * *

If I thought my hike _to_ the village on the first day was agonizing, this march was downright torture. We spent the first hour or two in pretty much compete silence. We were all determined to find something out, I guess. However, by the third hour, we started getting a bit bored, and so the small talk began.

"So... Um... What were you before all of this?" I asked Rin.

"Me? Well..." she pondered for a bit before continuing, "My father's American and my mother's Japanese. He works for some electronic giant whose headquarters is based in Japan, so you can probably guess how he met my mom."

Japanese-American, huh? Nice...this was getting more interesting by the minute...

"I spent most of my life on the west coast, near Silicon Valley, for obvious reasons. The trip to Hawaii was a surprise gift from my dad 'cuz he got a pretty big promotion. I can't remember what... Something with 'Senior' in the title... At any rate, we spent about a week there, catching some waves, basking in the sun... We even went to see Pearl Harbor. Considering my parents' ethnicities, that was a somewhat awkward experience... Anyway, it was our last night when I... you know... wound up here. Right before I went to bed that night, I remember asking my dad if this promotion was gonna cause him to be away from us more. I still remember what he said... He told me, 'Elizabeth, trust me, I will let _nothing_ stand in between me and my little girl.' I wonder what he's doing now, being separated from me and being able to do nothing about it?..."

"It's tough for all of us..." Josh stated, "And for our folks. I'm sure that, no matter how impossible, they must be doing all they can to find us. All we can do is attempt the same to get home." I nodded gravely.

We continued onward for a few more minutes in silence. Afterwards, we finally stopped to have something to eat out of Josh's satchel. We didn't bring much; three apples and a huge collection of berries, but getting more was easy: just pick it off the trees nearby. As the three of us were seated on a fallen log, eating, I thought I heard something odd coming from a nearby bush. It didn't sound natural at all; in fact, it almost sounded mechanical.

"Guys?" I asked, "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Rin inquired.

"I think there's something over in that bush," I said, pointing towards the shrub in question.

"Probably just your imagination," Josh shrugged.

"No really! I heard something over there!" I insisted, "It sounded like... Like a motor or something!"

"A motor? Out here in the woods?"

"Yeah!... Guys, I'm not crazy!"

To prove my point, I got up and walked over to the foliage.

"Look guys, I know I heard something in this-"

WHAM! I immediately fell backwards at least five feet as something hard and metal hit me square in the nose. By the time I got my bearings back together, I found myself staring up at something that nearly made my heart stop.

Standing above me, with a gun pointed at my head, was a fat, red robot.

The thing was about the same height as me, three feet tall, but he was a _lot_ heavier (considering the fact that his one foot was standing on my tail, and it was hurting like heck). It certainly didn't _look_ physically fit, either: it was rotund, almost a perfect oval, and had flimsily appendages acting as its arms and legs. Its head (which was firmly attached to his body; no neck) had two yellow eyes, a long, cone-shaped nose, and a goofy-looking grin on his mug. In fact, the robot almost looked kinda _familiar_... But I couldn't recall where I had seen it before. I suppose you could attribute that to the fact that it was holding a firearm about three inches away from my forehead, hovering right over my headband. If I didn't do something fast, I was going to have a bullet in my brain.

I instantly ducked and tried giving it a sweeping low kick, nearly tearing my tail out of it's socket in the process. It didn't do much more than wobble it a bit, but that was enough to get my tail free. I then whipped out one of my knifes and started banging on the tin can's heavy armor plating like it was made of aluminum, creating some gashes and heavy dents. With a last minute thought, I backed away and started channeling energy to my fists. While like this, I couldn't attack; I was completely vulnerable.

Thankfully, my friends decided to act.

Josh practically lunged from his position on the log and threw himself at the robot, knocking it back a yard or so and giving me a chance to get back up. Rin had her pocketknife drawn (how did she expect to fight with that thing, anyway?), but she couldn't really find an opening, as Josh was busy hammering the oversized trashcan with his wooden pole. I ran forwards and threw my energized fists at the robot, trying to simulate Sakura's super-powered strength. It only created a bigger dent in it's side, toppling over in the process.

"What is that thing!?" Rin demanded, twirling the knife around on her finger. She really wanted to get in on the action, I suppose.

"Beats me..." I muttered, still busy slamming my fists into the robot's crazed expression, backing away again as it lunged at me.

A few moments later, with one final blow, Josh floored the tin can. After making sure it was really down for the count, Josh turned back to us, stylishly spinning his pole around in one hand.

"Heh, heh..." Josh chuckled to himself, "Nice to know that all those self-defense classes I took at the YMCA finally paid off."

"They teach pole-fighting at the Y?" Rin questioned, raising what would be her eyebrow if leopards had such things.

Unfortunately, Rin never got her question answered. Suddenly and without warning, the presumably 'dead' robot behind Josh sprung back up onto its feet! He turned around just in time to get punched in the face and fall to the ground, much like I did. This time, however, rather than pointing the gun at our friend's forehead, the robot reached down with its other hand and grabbed Josh at the throat! It was trying to choke him! Rin immediately ran in to stop it with her pocketknife (what was she planning on doing with a one inch blade, exactly?), but the robot quickly pointed its gun right at Rin. It didn't fire it, but it forced Rin to back off while it continued to suffocate Josh.

Now, it only had one gun, and it was keeping it on Rin at all times. It wasn't all that concerned with me, so I could've tried to rush in myself, but now, after facing it in combat, I could tell I couldn't even kill the measly robot with my knifes, much less my fists. The only other thing I had was a useless canteen chock full of water.

Wait a second... Water? Last time I checked, electronics and water didn't go well together...

I unscrewed the lid to the canteen and threw its contents at the robot. Although some of it simply bounced of his outer shell, quite a bit of it fell into some of the cracks that Josh made during his bash-fest. The result was a rather impressive light show, if I do say so myself. Sparks began blowing out of the robot as it began to convulse rather violently. All this sporadic movement eventually caused it to lose its grip on Josh's neck, so I took the opportunity to snatch up his discarded staff and kindly repaid it back by rapidly smashing it against it, using it like a manic baseball bat.

I don't know about you, but I think the robot's pretty much finished at this point.

Nevertheless, the three of us approached the smoking remains with extreme caution after making sure Josh was okay. Once we were about a foot away, Josh began poking the short-circuited robot with his pole that I'd given back to make sure it was _really_ 'dead'.

"Well..." Josh observed, "I think we got 'im."

We all gave a collective sigh of relief.

"So..." Rin began, "Now what?"

"I dunno..." I shrugged, "Maybe... We should... Um... Take it back to camp?"

If looks could kill, I think the pair I got from my partners would've stabbed me in the gut, slit my throat, and then kick my corpse around for a little while after my death.

"We should do WHAT!?" Rin shrieked, probably loud enough to shatter glass (and my eardrum), "Are you crazy!?"

I glared at Rin for her outburst." What I mean is, shouldn't we take it and show it to Sam? Me and the nerd could probably figure out what the heck it was doing out here in the first place. I'm not as dumb as I look, and my dad taught me a few things. That sound reasonable, Miss Shriek-Fest?"

"For starters, Shaun isn't what I'd call a 'nerd'," Josh corrected, "Smart? Yes. A genius? Possibly. But he certainly doesn't fit that stereotype otherwise. Secondly,the Boy Scouts isn't exactly a computer-intensive organization, so just because he knows a lot about survival doesn't mean he knows much about computers."

Dang. I just got shot down twice in as many seconds. I guess this is why Nate's the leader and I'm not. Well, that and the fact that he's a year or two older and has been here thirteen days more than I have.

Oh well, I'll just keep persisting. That's what I'm good at (just ask my mom).

"But... Think about it guys! If we bring this thing back to the village, maybe someone will recognize it! You said we were looking for answers, right? Well, we just might have a big one right here! I could also try and do what I said before."

Both Josh and Rin thought this over for a moment.

"Well, she has a point..." Rin mused.

"Hmm... Okay," Josh concluded, "we'll bring this giant trash can back to the village and see if anyone has any clue as to what it is."

I win. Score. I pumped my fist and grinned.

Josh grabbed the robot's arms while I lifted it up by its legs. Rin, meanwhile, seemed perfectly content to just watch us carry the thing (I guess she was getting back for all the times Josh made her go get food or something...). Of course, we still had to haul this half-ton monster about ten miles back to camp, but none of us really cared. We had finally found something that might have some answers.

* * *

It was mid-afternoon by the time we finally returned. All the kids who were playing around the village understandably stopped and stared at us as we dragged the blown-out robot down the main 'street' in the village. Sam was seated by the campfire, starting to get dinner ready when we promptly dumped the metal menace at his feet with a loud 'CLUNK!'. Interestingly enough, he didn't seem all that bowled over by the sudden 'gift'.

"I seriously hope I don't need to tell you we can't eat _that_," Sam quipped sarcastically, "I mean, I understand wanting a high-iron diet and all, but..."

"Can it, Sam," Rin spat. For someone who didn't have to carry a thousand pound monstrosity through ten miles of wood, she seemed to be the most exhausted and jaded by the time we returned, "that thing nearly strangled Nate during our hike. Do you have any idea what it is? We can't figure it out."

I looked back at the robot that Sam was now inspecting. Now, I _really_ felt like I had seen something like this somewhere before... But where? It certainly couldn't have been in real life (back when I was human, I mean... This whole furry thing felt more like _sur_real life), so it had to be from a movie or something...

"Hmm... Ahh..." Sam pondered, "Gah, I can't think of anything at the moment, sorry. Can't shake the feeling like I've seen it somewhere before, though..."

"Yeah, same here," I concurred, "maybe one of the kids knows?"

At this point, just about all the little kids had made their way to the bonfire to look for themselves at this huge discovery. As one might expect, they were a little less cautious and a lot more excited about the prospect of having their very own robot, regardless of the fact that it nearly killed their leader.

"Cool!" exclaimed a small sparrow, "That's one awesome robot!"

"Yeah!" agreed a chubby guinea pig, "We should make it our own personal servant!"

"Tph... Yeah, right!" shouted a tiger cub, "That thing looks stupid! I mean, look how it's shaped! It's a giant freakin' _egg_, man!"

_Egg... Man... _EGGMAN!? Bells, whistles, and at least ten air raid sirens went off in my head all at the same time. In my mind, a dawn of revelation had just rocketed up, the heavens were parting, and angels were descending, singing the Hallelujah Chorus. It all made sense now! _I KNEW WHERE WE WERE!_ I guess Sam must have noticed this, as he was looking at the sudden awestruck expression on my face with great confusion.

"Um... Dude? You okay?"

I didn't reply. Instead, I marched over and set the robot in as upright of a position as possible.

"Guys..." I began, "Does this guy look recognizable to you?"

I got a bunch of confused "No..."s as a reply.

"Okay... How many of you play video games?"

Although I think they were all caught off guard by my sudden subject change, just about every hand shot up anyhow. Now we were getting somewhere.

"Right then... What ones?"

There were a bunch of varied answers. Josh mentioned _Halo_ and _Gears of War_, Rin listed a bunch of RPGs (what is it with women and their RPGs?), and Sam sputtered off _Brain Age_ and _Nintendogs_ (was Nate sure this guy wasn't a 'nerd'?). From rest of the kids, I got a few more replies. A few brought up _Mario Kart_, but most just talked about those awful movie-licensed games. Eventually, though, someone mentioned exactly what I was waiting for.

"Well..." a tiny beaver said, "I played _Sonic Heroes_..."

He was silent for a moment before it also hit him.

"HEY! WAIT A SECOND!" he squealed, pointing a finger (claw?) at the robot, "That guy looks like one of 'em baddies from that game! It's a... Uh... Watchamacallit..."

"An Egg Pawn?" I suggested.

"Yeah!"

That did it. I got up in front of the crowd and looked at everyone. I knew I was gonna hate myself for uttering the line that I had previously lampooned in so many terrible fanfictions, but I just had to get it out.

"Guys... I think we're in the Sonic universe." I mentally smacked my face at this. I had gone and done the thing which I had criticized so much before.

At this point, the floodgates opened.

Six people gasped, four shrieked, two cried, and I think one of them completely passed out. Amidst all the confusion, I could only make out scattered collections of incomplete sentences as everyone started talking to everyone else at the same time.

"-nic? Who's tha-"

"-on't tell me you don't know who Sonic the Hedg-"

"Isn't he an anime character? I saw him on Fox Bo-"

"-ou kiddin'? He's a _game_ character, stu-"

"-aven't seen him since I stopped reading that comic book!"

"-tuck here? Couldn't I have wound up someplace cooler, like the Mushroom Kin-"

"-_ND LEARN! HANGING ON THE ED_-"

"YO! EVERYONE! CALM DOWN!"

Thank heavens for Josh. If it weren't for him, I think we'd still be freaking out over this shocking development. Upon hearing his booming voice, the whole place died down rather quickly.

"Okay, now look, I'm sure this is a pretty big theory Dawn's just come up with..." he looked at me, "But we can't jump to conclusions..."

"But she has to be right!" Sam countered, "The robot you guys took out is definitely one of those Egg Pawn thingies from _Sonic Heroes_! I _knew_ I had seen him someplace before!"

Josh looked at him, at the crown of hyperactive grade schoolers, and finally back at me.

"Well, I guess this might be enough evidence after all... Okay, so it's official then: _as far as we can tell, we are in the Sonic universe_. Any questions?"

One tiny paw shot up.

"Can we go fight Eggman now?"

If I was an anime character, I think I would've been picking my jaw off of the ground right then. We've just figured out we're in Sonic-land, and some kid's already wanting to go fight Eggy. And can we say 'Mary Sue'?

"Uh... No..." Josh replied, "Our first order of business is moving out. If this is the Sonic world, there must be a Station Square somewhere, correct?"

Nods.

"Then, we should set out and find it. Hopefully, we'll be able to find our way home from there. Any more questions?"

This time, no one stuck their hand up.

"Well then, this 'meeting' is dismissed."

* * *

Oddly enough, despite my whole grandiose revelation, the rest of the day was much like the day before. The kids still goofed around while the four of us took care of more important things. However, there was one key difference: just about every conversation between the kiddies was about (surprise, surprise) Sonic. Regardless, the day soon turned to night, and that found ourselves around the bonfire once again after all the tykes went to bed.

"So..." Rin began, "We're in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, huh?"

"When you think about it, we shouldn't be all that surprised," Sam observed, "I mean, there were signs..."

"Like?..." Josh prompted.

"Well, take... us, for example. When you think of furries, you usually think of creatures with a mostly human anatomy but with animalistic features, right? Like werewolves and cat women and mermaids and stuff."

"Well, I don't exactly think of furries all that often," Rin commented, "but yeah, you're right."

"But we, on the other hand, are much shorter than an average human, and not all that anatomically similar, either. We've got huge heads and bodies, and skinny arms and legs. In other words, just like Sonic characters!"

I didn't notice it before, but Sam was indeed right. How could I have missed something like that? I'm even a Sonic fan, for crying out loud!

"You know..." I added, "There was something I didn't exactly bring up before about all this."

"Hm? What's that?" Rin inquired.

"It's clear we're in _a_ Sonic universe, but what one? SEGA? _SatAM_? _Sonic X_?"

There was a moment of quiet contemplation between the four of us before Josh spoke up.

"Well, let's put our brains together. From what I know, there are eight major 'Sonicverses' correct?"

"Yep!" I confirmed. When you spend so much time on fanfiction, you have to be familiar with every angle of the characters you write about.

"So, who knows what?" he asked, "I mean, I played the old games, but not so much the new ones. I also watched the two old shows. You know, _AoStH_ and _SatAM_, so I'm pretty well-researched on those three things, _if_ this world is based on one of them. Anyone else?"

"Well, I don't like telling this to many people..." Rin admitted, turning notably redder, "But I really, _really_ like the Archie comics. I've been reading them since issue one."

"Hey, don't feel bad," Sam assured, "You're not the only comic fan around here! _I_ managed to get all the Fleetway comics off of Ebay! Still, I kinda prefer the games more, but those comics were really well written nonetheless."

"Anything else, Sam?" Josh inquired.

"Um... I've seen quite a few _Sonic Underground_ episodes, but I had to stop watching them before the musical sections made my ears bleed. Other than that... Not much."

Josh nodded in acknowledgement and then turned to me.

"Well then, what about you, Dawn?"

"Me?" I replied, "I guess I know the modern Sonic games pretty well... pretty bad 3D modeling, changing voice actors all the time, controls going insane...Still fun, though!"

I got three awkward stares in response to my soliloquy. Even amongst fellow fans, my stance on the modern games was considered weird.

"Uh... Right then... I also saw that anime movie once, and I've watched the _Sonic X _show so many times because the TV station wouldn't give it up at all, so it nearly made my eyes explode. Otherwise, I'm at least vaguely familiar with the other incarnations of the Blue Blur."

"Great then!" Josh declared, "That means that, between the four of us, we are totally prepared for _whatever_ version of Sonic's world we are in!"

There was a few more moments of silence while we simply enjoyed the warmth of the fire.

"So, um..." Sam mumbled, "Josh, were you serious about the breaking camp thing?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I mean, isn't that a little... well... crazy? Why should we all be trying to find Station Square or something like it? What's wrong with living here?"

"It's not a matter of where we're going to live," Josh explained, "Station Square, as far as I can recall, is pretty much the 'hub' of the modern Sonic worlds. If we can find that, there's a good chance we'll find _some_thing about getting home. I mean, we might even run into Sonic or one of his friends! _They_'d be a _great_ help, I'm sure of it!"

Somehow, I personally wasn't convinced. Sure, Sonic liked to save the world and stuff like that, but help a rag-tag group of minors find a way home? Very unlikely. At least, that's the impression I got after reading so many of those stupid self-insert fics. In those stories, the author never _wants_ to leave! Then again, _this_ was pretty much a living, breathing self-insert fic.

That's when it hit me: what if there _wasn't_ a way home? I certainly couldn't think of any direct answers right off the bat. The only thing that came to mind was the Chaos Emeralds, but that just seemed overly cliché. Of course, since we were pretty much trapped in a self-insert nightmare, maybe an overly used plot device was the only way out of this thing.

I lolled my head back, only to be face-to-face with a robot's ugly mug. I prepared to give it the bashing of it's short-lived life before I realized that it was just the tin can we trashed earlier, still sitting there.

"Say, guys?" I asked, "Last time I checked, Eggman never sends just one robot."

"Your point?" Rin requested.

"Do you think more of these things are out there? Like... I dunno... an _army_? What if they find this village?"

"All the more reason to break camp, eh?" Josh suggested, "Don't fret about it, Dawn. Tomorrow, we're heading out, and there's strength in numbers."

"Right..." I moaned, getting up and leaving the campfire. My fears weren't all that relayed by Josh's assurances, but there indeed wasn't much to do until the next day. Still slightly unsettled by everything that had happened during this monumental day, I headed back to my hut and fell asleep on the bed without even taking my shoes off.

* * *

I was awakened at what felt like only a few hours later to a deafening scream. I couldn't make out who it was, but what they were saying was clear.

"EVERYBODY RUN! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"


	4. Omake Time!

**(A/N): I've got a lot of typing to do on the next chapter, and I need some OC's. Here's the template:**

**Name:**

**Gender:**

**Species/Description:**

**Likes:**

**Dislikes:**

**Personality:**

**In the mean time, here's a little something I whipped up to keep you busy. Behold the omake of randomness!**

**Also, I'm now making questions of the chapter. Behold.**

_**The Question: If you were born on Mobius, what kind of animal would you be?**_

_**~~Omake~~**_

"Tonight, is the night," whispered Josh into the microphone onstage.

Sam flew in on a trapeze, then rammed into one of the pillars holding the music hall up, sliding down the pole with birds flying around his head in a quirky fashion. The camp audience snickered, then hushed down.

After rushing the flying squirrel to the medics, a plume of smoke erupted from nowhere on the stage. As it faded away, it revealed both Dawn and Rin. Dawn held a pair of swords in each gloved hand, while Rin was holding a long staff.

"Hey, that's mine!" Josh shouted from somewhere below. Every animal glared him down until he whimpered and shrank back into place.

Without further interruption, the two onstage began duking it out. Rin lashed out with the staff and Dawn blocked the blow by crossing her swords while smirking. They kept at it until Dawn finally cut the staff Rin was holding in half. Josh gave a cry of resentment at Dawn for wrecking his favorite toy, until she stared at him in a questioning glare. He shivered and sank back down into the crowd.

Sam finally appeared to the audience after both women jumped off of the stage. He now had a bandage wrapped around his head from the crash against the pillar.

The little flying squirrel whipped out a guitar and a stool. He sat down and began strumming the strings of the instrument, humming lyrical heaven. The soothing music warmed the ears of the crowd below, and some began snoring right away.

Soon they all got onstage and gave a bow. "Thank you, and good night!"

**The end. Thank you for reading, and please review!**


	5. Rewrite coming: Accepting OC's and ideas

I'm sorry about the two month delay of no updates. I've gone over this story, and come to the conclusion that it seriously needs rewriting. Here are the things I'm planning on changing in the rewrite:

The plot in general- For me, I've got almost no plot running the original story. That is going to be changed drastically.

The characters- I might stick with a few of my original ones, but I will now be accepting OC's. I need at least fifteen or more to start rewriting.

The fact that I input Naruto traits in with absolutely no permission from the readers- you can finally tell me how you feel about these actually being in the story. Then you can ask me to get rid of them or beg me to keep them there. Your choice.

I also need feedback on what to change with the plot and actual ideas to keep it going. This is still going to be a self insert, so I don't really care now what flames come my way. Constructive criticism will be appreciated.

By the way, I changed my pen name to Tempest Breeze. SO...

Look forward to the future rewrite of this absolutely failed story! I'll keep it up on the site as an example to show what happens if you don't plan out your stories very carefully, or else they end up exploding into your face.

-Tempest


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